Aaron Perry
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Michael Cain discusses EarthX Film, which he co-founded with Trammell Crow to share movies that cause people to make positive change. The EarthX Film community provides a network that links film experiences to philanthropic causes, and, as Michael describes, “makes it easy for people to make small changes and see the positive impacts of those changes.” A father of daughters, Michael also describes the importance of female perspectives in these times, and encourages us to engage in collaborative efforts within our communities. He advocates eating a whole food diet, knowing farmers, sweating every day, and the importance of self-care in maintaining health and well-being in the context of a very demanding career and responsibility laden position of leadership. A commencement speaker and recipient of an MFA from the American Film Institute (AFI), Michael has produced and executive produced over 25 feature-length films, 30 commercials and 10s of music videos, many of them award winning projects, many following his mission to change the world for the better, including his directorial debut, TV Junkie, which was awarded the Sundance Special Jury Prize and premiered on HBO. Michael founded the non-profit Arts Fighting Cancer (AFC) which raised funds for cancer relief through the Deep Ellum Film Festival (DE/F2), Lone Star Drive-In and the Santa Monica Drive-In at the Pier among others. He was Founding Artistic Director, CEO, Chairman of the Board and President of The Dallas Film Society which hosts the Dallas International Film Festival (Formerly AFI DALLAS) one of the top 30 film festivals in North America. In 2017, he co-founded the EarthxFilm Festival with Trammell Crow as part of the largest eco-expo, conference and film festival, EarthX, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2020 – coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Michael calls us to sign up for the EarthX newsletter at earthx.org, to volunteer at the EarthX Film Festival and Expo in April 2020, and to join the EarthX League.
Transcript
(Automatically generated transcript for search engine optimization and reference purposes – grammatical and spelling errors may exist.)
Welcome to the YonEarth Communities Stewardship and Sustainability Podcasts series.
Today we are at EarthX Film visiting with Michael Cain.
Hi, Michael.
Hi, how are you doing?
Good.
How are you doing today?
Good.
Thanks for having me on.
Well, we’re really excited to have this opportunity to visit with you.
And I know we’re at a big event that you guys hosted last night here in Dallas, Texas,
and appreciate you taking the time in your busy schedule today to visit with us a bit.
And before we dive into our conversation, let me just tell our audience a little about
you and who you are.
True.
So Michael Cain is the president and co-founder of EarthX Film.
His mission is to change the world for the better through storytelling, which led him
to co-found EarthX Film in 2017.
EarthX Film is an environmental festival which showcases films and emerging interactive
media that explore conservation, climate change, and the environment.
EarthX Film is a division of the nonprofit organization EarthX, which was founded by
Tramble S. Crow in 2011.
EarthX is the world’s largest environmental expo conference and provides and film festival
excuse me, which takes place every April in Dallas, Texas.
The event and year round activities provide a non-partisan platform for all parties to
openly discuss environmental problems and work towards solutions.
In 2019, over 177,000 attendees, 650 organizations, 6,500 youth, and 400 speakers participated.
Michael received his Master of Fine Arts from the American Film Institute in producing
where he was granted the honor of commencement speaker.
Cain has produced and executive produced over 25 feature-length films, 30 commercials,
and music videos.
Many of them award-winning projects, which align with the mission of using media to inspire
and create social change, including his directorial debut TV junkie, which was awarded the Sundance
Special Jury Prize and premiered on HBO.
And Michael, I know you’ve also worked as producer on jobs, on tower, and now you’re working
on a piece called Bigger Than Water than I’m really excited about.
I want to dive in by asking you, how did you get into film as a way to work toward social
change as a way to work on many of these environmental and cultural challenges that we’re facing?
I ran the and started the Dallas Film Society in the AFI Dallas International Film Festival.
I started in the Deepellin Film Festival.
Deepellin Film Festival was a Film Festival raised money for cancer relief.
So I began to understand the fact that you could link these sort of experiences with philanthropic
causes.
And so through programming Dallas International Film Festival, we began to see great movies
like The Cove come along with Luis Sohoius, and we didn’t understand that there was some connection
that if we could figure out the impact piece of it, that movies could change the world.
And I always got involved with films because I believe they could change the world.
It’s just the environmental piece of it.
It’s the one that I came really late to the table on.
And I’d even give credit for Luis Sohoius and his film Race and Extinction.
They approached Tramble about coming on, Chip Cummings, and group approached Tramble about
coming on.
I saw a cut of the movie, loved it, and then helped negotiate the deal, helped make it so
that it was a win-win for Tramble and for Luis.
And so the film got in Sundance after that and then helped educate Tramble to see the
fact that these movies could be used as a tool to go along with the conferences and the
expo, but to create social change and also just changes within government.
You know, if they don’t know about it, how are they going to change it?
And I think film has that power to be the catharsis for everything.
Yeah, absolutely.
Last night we watched together Sea of Shadows.
And I was wondering if you might share with the audience just, you know, a quick synopsis
of what we saw last night and why you think that’s so powerful to share with the community
here?
Sure, absolutely.
And that was a film we played during the film festival and it received an impact award
which meant the money didn’t go to the film.
I went to the cause behind the film because that’s the other thing.
People don’t make movies to show them to people.
They make them to create change within people and they make them to promote the causes
that they’re actually filming.
So it’s not enough just to watch a movie.
You’ve got to actually create impact.
So that movie does a great job.
Set in Mexico begins with an investigative reporter Carlos Lorette who was there with
us last night and follows his investigative journey to find out why this particular
fish, Lord, I’m going to blow the name of a natural toroaba was being used basically
called the cocaine of the sea because in Asia it’s so expensive to have and unfortunately
the small group of 3,000 fishermen in the Baja of Mexico are using illegal fishing methods
that are causing the Vakites to go extinct.
So you have multiple environmental stories, you have economic impact, you’ve got a crime
story.
So the movie does a great job of tying it all together to realize that none of these
problems are simple to solve but they have to be solved.
Yeah, absolutely.
One of the things I really appreciate about the movie is that it really shows how our
consumer demand in various parts of the planet is having massive and profound effects
on ecosystems and communities of people in other parts of the world and it’s very clear
to us at the Y-Earth community that this is one of the mechanisms we really each need
to understand and wield appropriately for the healing of our world.
And so all of the movies that we show and that movie is a great indicator and shows you
what these movies can do, they’re using it, getting in front of government officials
and as government officials are saying, one, we need to move on this because this is
out.
You know, if I don’t get ahead of this, I could find myself on the bad side of history
being the group who did not do something about it once there, the facts were laid out.
And I think that’s another piece of it, it’s education, but it’s a wedge.
You know, it’s a tool to be able to go to these people and say, you better do something
because the rest of the world is going to know you didn’t do something.
Yeah, that’s really powerful.
Speaking of powerful, you’ve been at this a while, right?
Earth X and Earth X film has really beautiful momentum and critical mass at this point.
2020 is going to be a really important and powerful year.
Why?
What’s going on in 2020?
The 50th anniversary of Earth Day is coming around.
That’s the last night, you know, it was the half-hour day which is basically a kickoff
to six months leading up to this 50th anniversary and, as Tramwell has said, oftentimes, if you
don’t get people involved on the 50th anniversary, they’re not getting involved on the 51st.
You know, it’s one of those whether it’s a corporation or a nonprofit or an educational
institution or government entity, just to walk in and say 50th celebration, 50th commensuration
of this movement, what are we going to do?
How are we going to work together?
How are we going to create an alliance?
Now, let’s think about 2030.
How do we create an alliance that in 10 years we’re looking back and saying we fix something.
We solve something.
We solve the problem where we learn about the problem during that time and then we work
together because it’s not enough to get one billion of the people on the planet engaged.
You know, when you look at it, eight billion coming up shortly, we have to figure out a
way to look beyond the barriers that exist and look for ways that we work together.
And I said, film and media, you know, if you watch a child or an adult watching virtual
reality, like there were last night, we had the largest eco virtual reality festival in
the world also that runs in tandem with 49 pieces last year.
It moves you.
It makes you come off there and you’re like, I love those animals.
I love that part of the world.
I’m afraid for this.
What do I do?
And so that’s excited.
This 50th anniversary is a great spot for us to reach out to people and say, get on board.
How do you want to do it?
How do we get you involved?
I really love this and I love how you’re looking ahead to 2030 and thinking about alliances.
In fact, I got to give a shout out.
So, Joni Klaw, one of our premier ambassadors and global advisory board members is here
with us off camera, hi, Joni.
And you know, she and I, we were just talking earlier today and we often talk about and
envision and work toward increasing partnerships and collaborations to help with many of these
complex and seemingly intractable challenges that we’re facing.
And I’m just curious, Michael, for you, when you’re thinking about what’s coming in 2020
and when you’re thinking about the next decade of work that we can all be doing together,
what is it that comes to mind for you and what is it that you know, you’re holding
in your heart with this work that you’re doing?
I want to make it so that it’s easy for people to see the small changes that they can make
in their life to create a big difference and to not be overwhelmed by the negativity.
You know, it’s a complicated situation.
There’s no moment that you can think about almost anything where you just go, we can
solve that.
The point is what we can do is create collaborations to solve that.
We can, I think the planet has the ability to heal itself in many ways, not every way,
and we shouldn’t take that for granted if we get out of the way.
If we just do what we can, do positively, but we quit doing the bad we’re doing to it.
If we look at single-use plastics, just a really small example, if you think about what
happened with plastic straws and how there’s a movement, but there’s a long way to go there.
If you think of materials, then the fact that what things are made of is a big part of
don’t buy something that ultimately you have to look at the 360 of where’s it going to
end up, is there a plan for it?
Everything ends up somewhere.
Think about clubs, are you buying new clubs, are you buying second-hand clubs, are you
buying better clubs?
Gently worn.
Exactly.
You’re looking for things that are going to be around for the rest of your life.
You’re buying shoes made out of recycled plastic for the ocean.
I think just one small, educated decision after another, and no shame, no blame, but looking
for the ways that we can be a part of the positive change.
I really love this, and you know, the durability and quality and thinking about whole systems
impacts.
Of course, with the why-north community, we really emphasize two key things, detoxification,
and of course, decarbonizing atmosphere, bringing those levels back into balance, and detoxification
has to do with virtually every aspect of our day-to-day lives, and it’s one of the
reasons I love Patagonia just to segue a little bit to remind folks, this is the why-north
community stewardship and sustainability podcast series, and we’re visiting with Michael
Cain at the EarthX film Headquarters here in Dallas, Texas, and I just want to give a quick
shout-out to our sponsors and partners, which includes Patagonia, Weila Waters, Purim,
the International Society of Sustainability Professionals, the LIDGE Family Foundation,
Beauty Counter, and the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America, of course, I’d
be remiss not to mention also Earth Coast Productions, a huge thanks to all of you for your
support of this work, not only with the digital media and communication work that we’re doing,
but also, of course, with the community mobilization work we’re doing in communities all over,
and also a huge thanks to our friends and ambassadors out there who have joined our monthly
giving program, your donations really help all of this work, and if you haven’t yet joined,
it’s very easy to do.
You can just go to whyoners.org and click on the donate button or whyoners.org slash support,
and you can join the monthly giving program at any level that works for you.
When you do that, I will send you an email with a very special code to unlock all of our
e-book and audiobook resources for free, which you can share with your friends and family,
and we really encourage that support.
2020, I often mentioned to folks, might be one of the most important years in our species
history and story, given all that’s at stake, and Michael, I’m just wondering, I know you’ve
got two daughters, and I overheard you chatting a bit last night about how having daughters
has somewhat reoriented or transformed or impacted, certainly, your approach to all
of this work you’re doing.
I’m wondering if you might share a little with us about how that’s affected your journey
and experience becoming a father and having daughters.
Yeah, it was a few years ago, actually, my first daughter, I have Athena and Delphine,
they’re six and four, wife Molina, who did a great job raising them while I’m traveling
a lot.
I was in Harbor Island and I was on the beach and I was standing there and I was looking
at my daughter who was in front of me on the beach with the waves coming up in front of
her and she was standing there and she stopped and she walked over and picked up a piece
of trash and walked over and put it in a trash can that she could barely reach into.
I was like, at that level, it’s already ingrained in her to take care of this.
So I have to use the power that I have with limited that is and if anything, I feel like
I’m a connector and I can get good people together and I can figure out a way to help
them meet and know each other.
I’ve got to use that.
I’ve got to encourage and support storytellers and get them telling the right stories or even
maybe more importantly, children’s stories, things that are youth oriented and a big part
of what you even see behind us, we have a youth film competition that we do and that’s
come out of the fact that my two daughters, what age and not four and six, but what age
can they start to make content?
At one point, can they start telling their stories and their perspectives and we’ve got
the March Versight Youth Summit that’s coming up this year at Earth X and we’re working
also with good media and upwardly and Instagram and Facebook and creative visions, part of
a planet 911 coalition to help them tell stories from around the world that we showcase
here but then we showcase them again to the world.
How do we get those out?
My daughters influence and the female perspective, to be honest, I’ve always had a great admiration
for women and respect and now to see them, I want to make sure they have every opportunity
in the world equally to be what they want to be and do what they want to be and a lot
of that means how do I give them the opportunity to be a part of the solution and I have to
leave by example, I have to up my game and that’s what’s been going on.
I bought a Tesla that hasn’t arrived yet after I just finished this last lease on my car
because I said, you know what, I want them every day to get into a car that is electric.
I want them to think that way so that they’ll never think the fact that they have to have
be limited to options and we’re 98% fossil fuel economy right now anyway, that’s not going
away in the orders that have to go away completely in the short term but we have to be smart
doing, you know, we can’t change industry overnight, right, right, it’s about incremental
changes, it’s about accelerating change where we can and yeah, I’m curious given how busy
your lifestyle is and how much you travel and so on, what are some of your personal practices
that help keep you healthy and imbalanced, you know, well-being is so important with
all this work that we’re doing and I’m curious if you might share with us.
Sure, I just, I’ve only watched Louis Soho’s films, I watched The Game Changers and my wife
and I went whole food plant-based based on that.
We’d always been the kind of people who knew we bought our food from a farmer’s market,
we knew the people who raised the chickens, when we were eating chicken or the beef, when
we were eating beef and the eggs and you know where our produce comes from and the fact
that it’s organic, those are some of the choices besides just being healthy and trying to
sweat every day, you know, it’s that once again, don’t tear yourself down, it’s the way
the planet is, if you don’t tear yourself down then the body will take care of itself
and so, and I would love to say that I have time to take mental time to enjoy everything
but I enjoyed this, I enjoyed the work, I enjoyed the people I get to meet, the environmentalist,
the storyteller, the ones who are much smarter than I am, I get to be around really cool
people all the time and that’s healthy.
Absolutely, love that Michael.
Well I know that today we’ve got a very tight schedule with you and I want to make sure
we’re being respectful of that.
I’m asking my team to make sure that when the, my next group, sorry, is true.
Yeah, before we sign off, I want to make sure we’re giving everybody the URLs where they
can go to find out more how to get involved with EarthX film, how to best support any of
these calls to action you want to share with our audience.
Sure, everything I think starts at the earthx.org site, I think that’s a great place to
get involved and people can volunteer and there’s a film drop down in category in there,
the same way there’s conferences and expo, you know, download the app, download the earthx.org
app and it’s got a lot of great tips, the earthx league which is an initiative where we’re
doing where we’re creating a space for people to collaborate and work together, come to
our year round screenings, you know, that’s something we do is we do at least one a month,
one times this, this month we’re doing three, next month we’re doing four, we thought
November would be an easy one, but the red is there’s so many great stories that need
to be told and we just need, we have to get them out there, it films like The Ghost Fleet,
that, you know, important film about the fishing industry and even slavery, you know, the
river in the wall, a great film about the environmental impact of what’s going on, if
you build a wall of the Rio Grande, then taking away the political and going into the nature
piece of it, those are the kind of movies we see all year round, yeah, earthx.org, earthx
film on social media, Instagram, Facebook, if we don’t have Pinterest I’d be surprised,
but those are great ways to keep up and then sign up to our newsletter and then let
us know if you have a better idea than us, we’re fine with feedback and people coming
to us to say and have you thought of this, because we don’t expect that we know everything
and we don’t want to be the people who know everything, we don’t want to get comfortable.
We created with Tramol a safe space to have awkward conversations, I love it, and that’s
where change happens, change is about preaching to the choir, that’s not having the same
group of environmentalists, how bless us, in a room, we already got it, we need the
people who are the ones who don’t know it yet, and once we educate them to choose a language
of love, so find a way to talk to people without putting them down and say here’s an idea
of something to do, so all those sites connect you to a community, I think that’s the important
thing about what you’re doing and what we’re doing, it’s absolutely beautiful, the collaboration
of the community, I really, I really love it and appreciate it, but I believe we’re co-pettidors
not competitors, co-pettidors, yeah, like this, working to create a larger pool of people
who need to know about what we do, absolutely beautiful, Michael, thanks for taking the
time to visit with us today and before we sign off, is there anything else you’d like
to share with us with our audience?
I think what’s important, it’s so interesting, and if your audience is an audience of environmentalist,
people who care about the planet, it’s different than the message when you speak to a conservative,
and as Tramble, who is a Republican, we have conservative conservationists in our audience,
be open to the dialogue, be, you know, don’t walk in with the closed mind, don’t walk
in with a, because you believe this, I don’t want to talk to you, that isn’t how change happens,
you know, like I said, if you get to a church, if you get to a university, the whole reason
that whoever’s up front is speaking is because the assumption is that the people that they’re
talking to need what’s coming out of them, you know, the dialogue, and if you don’t just
get to a church and preach to the choir, you don’t necessarily go into teachers, don’t teach
teachers, teachers teach students, and so I just think is to be open to that, as an I don’t know
it all, and I want to know more, and I want to get to know your side of the story, because I may not
agree with you, but we all agree that we best want clean water, and clean air, and a better
future for our children. Yeah, beautiful. Well, thank you, Michael. Thank you, I appreciate it.
I appreciate it. Thank you. Have a nice day. Yeah, good job. Wonderful. Thank you. See you later,
everybody. The YonEarth Community Stewardship and Sustainability podcast series is hosted by
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